Those who would like to pin too much hope on the CPI-M’s seeking quota for uplift of “Dalit Muslims”, their hopes would be dashed soon.

Recently, the Marxist party demanded reservation for the “Dalit Muslims” while arguing that many of them were still in traditional occupations as their Hindu counterparts. The argument is correct, but only partially. Why single out the “Dalit Muslims”?

The Muslims in general are largely illiterate and mired in grinding poverty. Modern education, trade and industry have not made much headway among them. They have been lagging behind by decades in industry, trade, profession and higher education. And this has created a shortage, particularly after partition, of a modern intelligentsia, modern middle class and a modern bourgeoisie - in short, of a modern civilisation among the Muslims.

There is, therefore, no point in shedding crocodile tears for the dwindling percentage of Muslims in government jobs without removing this shortage; it has been playing an important role in keeping the plight of the community unchanged.

Successive governments, either in New Delhi or West Bengal, have done nothing to remove this shortage. The Left Front (read CPI-M), which has been ruling the state for the past thirty years, has done precious little to improve the lot of the Muslims; and this despite the Muslims giving their unflinching support to the Left parties all these years. Then what is the raison d’être behind the CPI-M’s new-found love for the Muslims which is manifest in its minority report?

First, it is the Rajendra Sachar Committee report that painted a very grim picture of the socio-economic and educational status of the Muslims in the country. Not only that, the committee observed that in Marxist-ruled West Bengal, where over 25 per cent of the population are Muslims, the community has only 4.7 per cent of employees in “higher positions” and in the lower categories only 1.8 per cent are Muslims, whereas the national average is 5 per cent. In Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or even in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, the Muslim share in government jobs is more than half of their population percentage.

This report pricked the Marxist myth of Muslim-friendly Bengal. But again, the Sachar Committee report would not have prompted the CPI-M to enter a territory it had not stepped into till now - reservation - had it not come in the wake of the controversy over the acquisition of land for new industries at Nandigram where the Jamait-ulema-i-Hind, along with other political parties, spearheaded the agitation against the land acquisition. The CPI-M felt that from the agitation emerged the challenge of a new political mobilisation by the Muslims in the state which sounded the alarm to the Left Front and unnerved the CPI-M, particularly because panchayat elections are due next year. Hence, the CPI-M Politburo released a charter of recommendations for the uplift of Muslims.

While releasing the charter, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said: “These proposals are not merely propagandist but realistic. The recommendations are about what can be done by the Centre and the states”. But contrary to Mr Karat’s assertion, the proposals are propagandist and not realistic. In a slew of measures recommended to recover Muslims from acute deprivation, suggestion of reservation for Muslims is constitutionally untenable. Also, the 404-page Sachar Committee report had steered clear of reservation for the Muslims.

Despite this, if Mr Karat, by his recommendations, meant to suggest that adequate shares should be given to “OBC Muslims” from the general quota for other backward classes, he had obviously overlooked its dangerous repercussions. First of all, why would the other backward castes allow a reduction in their quota to give adequate shares to the “OBC Muslims”? And even if that happens, the knowledge that an “OBC Muslim”, by virtue of reservation, would have a higher percentage of existing jobs out of their quota, would make unemployment more unbearable to the other backward castes.

In that case, under conditions of limited opportunities for employment and advancement, some groupings on the basis of caste and community are inevitable for whom the reservations and nominations would pose a threat of economic crisis and slow disintegration. And this they would try to overcome by fighting against reservation and this development would gradually widen the social base of casteism and communalism, creating a vast potential for casteist and communal movements which might burst out every now and then with immense fury and sweep.

It is not that the CPI-M is not aware of such consequences but then every political party uses certain class of people at different times and different levels for vote-bank politics. In independent India, Muslims were and are the worst victim of such politics.
In the past, a number of committees were set up to find out ways to ameliorate the condition of the Muslims but nothing really happened. In May, 1980, when the LF government in West Bengal was just two years old, a high-power panel on minorities was set up by the Centre which had conducted a sample survey on “representation of minorities in the government services”.

The report of the panel was tabled in the House on 27 August, 1990. For the uplift of the minorities, the Union government then issued a number of instructions to the administration and the state governments. Had those instructions been seriously followed and implemented, such a dismal picture of the community in almost every facet of life - ranging from education to jobs - would not have emerged.

Further, by raising the demand of reservation for “Dalit Muslims”, the CPI-M supported the Sachar Committee’s attempt at trifurcating the Muslims - instead of the conventional practice of treating the community as a monolithic group - for any positive action by the State for the uplift of the entire community.

The Sachar Committee has observed that , ajlafs and arzals - the three layers of the Muslim community - call for different types of affirmative action. The ashraf category includes Muslims of foreign blood and converts from higher castes; those loosely equivalent to Hindu OBCs are called ajlafs and arzals are equivalent to Scheduled Castes.

But any such move that could end up in breaking the monolithic character of the Muslims in independent India is historically wrong. Because after Partition, the well-off and educated class of Muslims (read ashrafs) went to Pakistan leaving behind those who were largely illiterate and steeped in grinding poverty. Call them ajlafs and arzals, but there is no existence of social hierarchy left after Partition among the Indian Muslims as such. Therefore, the question of remaining at the top or bottom of such a hierarchy does not arise at all. Today, the fact is that Muslims as a monolithic bloc are a weaker section of Indian society. And according to the official data released, the Muslims of West Bengal are the worst off. Close proximity to the ruling party of some might have brought them fortunes that gradually strengthened the position of a few individuals, but not of their community. After 30 years of left rule, the Muslims have been “downwardly mobile” and have not still been able to secure a permanent income for themselves. The CPI-M and the so-called advocates of Muslims are not really bothered about the plight of the community. If they were, the Muslims would not have been as worse off as the report shows.

The Muslims still live in ghettos even in Kolkata which are vile, filthy, disease-ridden hovels called **bustees**. These consist of dark, dingy rooms. Dirty water accumulates in every rut and garbage is strewn everywhere. The alleys are dense with flies. Sanitary conditions are shocking, to say the least. These conditions speak volumes for the plight of the Muslims living even in the capital city of West Bengal.

Under these circumstances, it is but natural to see the CPI-M’s proposal to espouse the cause of the Muslims as a tactical ploy to make political capital out of it. Ultimately Muslims will get nothing from this proposal. On the contrary, the BJP, particularly, in West Bengal, would go to any extent (state unit of the BJP already registered its strong reaction against it) by communalising the issue of Muslim reservation and would raise a cry that Hindutva is in danger of being suppressed and exterminated or Muslims are again being appeased.

This would help to create a basis for the BJP’s rise in West Bengal where the party has only marginal presence till now. The CPI-M’s proposal of Muslim reservation would thus bolster the BJP’s meaningless theory of Muslim appeasement and provide favourable ground for the spread of communalism in the state which has, so far, remained aloof from communal actions compared to other states.

However, apart from all these controversies, there is no denying that Muslims in independent India are a hapless lot and their economic and social status are worse off and immediate measures are needed to be taken to recover them from acute deprivation. The Centre has already announced a number of measures, in the wake of the Sachar Committee report, to improve the condition of the Muslims where the issue of reservation has been carefully omitted and rightly so since the Prime Minister might have perceived the danger inherent in it.

Further, if the dominant theme is the economic uplift of the Muslims what is imperative is to set up more schools for Muslim boys and girls to impart free education in order to increase the literacy rate among the community. Next, actions will have to be taken to ensure that Muslim job-seekers are not subjected to unfortunate discrimination both in public and private sectors. Concerted efforts are necessary on the part of the Centre and state governments to ensure that the financial institutions dispose of applications and business proposals of Muslims favourably.

(The author is a freelance writer)